


Defying Gravity

by Codexfawkes



Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Thor (Movies)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-01
Updated: 2015-02-01
Packaged: 2018-03-10 01:35:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,166
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3271907
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Codexfawkes/pseuds/Codexfawkes
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Elphaba just blew the roof off Stark Tower, look out Oz. #BigBusinessforBigChange #thisisgoingtobeepic #bitchplease</p>
            </blockquote>





	Defying Gravity

**Author's Note:**

> I own nothing. Any characters used from the Marvel universe and any quotes from anywhere are not mine. Joss is Boss.

“I knew it, I fucking _knew_ that bitch would find a way to screw me over.” Pepper snarled as she stalked off the elevator into their penthouse. Tony looked up from his tablet, mildly alarmed, because a) Pepper was home before five on a weekday (or any day) and b) she was swearing in anger (Pep was more of a “fuck, yes, Tony more” kinda swearer).

“Do I need to put on the suit?” he joked, tracking her movements as she kicked off her shoes and tugged her blouse out of the waist of her skirt. “Pep?” he asked putting his tablet aside with mounting concern as her silence stretched on.

“It might be necessary…or maybe Natasha would be better? Stealth…yeah…” she muttered to herself, pacing to the bar and reaching for a bottle of scotch. Tony sat up straight, his eyebrows shooting up as he watched Pepper pour herself a generous finger of scotch.

“It must be serious,” he said standing up and heading across the room toward her. Tony walked up behind her and wrapped his arms around her waist, tucking his chin onto her shoulder. Pepper relaxed against his chest with a sigh, melting into him.

“Caroline had her assistant call and tell me that she completely forgot her niece is getting married next Saturday and she has to fly to Italy for the wedding.” Pepper told him bitterly.

“Next…isn’t that when the…” he trailed off.

“Yup, it is.,” she confirmed with a sigh. Tony grimaced and tightened his arms around her.

“Could you, I don’t know do something else?” he offered.

“Tony, it’s a week and a half away. I had three months to learn the song we picked and I just barely feel confident with it. There’s no way to learn another Broadway number in a week and a half.” Pepper retorted shortly, trying to pull away from him.

“Sorry, sorry, just spit balling here.,” he apologized tugging her back against him.

“Miss Potts, if I may, Miss Lewis is quite a skilled singer and a fan of the musical Wicked. I have heard her sing that particular song numerous times.” Jarvis offered.

“Jarvis, are you serious?” Pepper asked pulling away from Tony with delighted excitement. 

“Hey…” Tony objected half-heartedly, reaching for her with a pout.

“Shall I invite Miss Lewis up to speak to you?” Jarvis asked as Pepper grinned at Tony and darted in to kiss him before pulling away and heading for the stairs.

“Yes Jarvis, please ask Darcy to come up and have dinner with us.” Pepper said, unbuttoning her blouse as she made her way to the bedroom. Tony ordered sushi for three and waited for Pepper to come back down. By the time the food arrived twenty minutes later, Pepper was relaxed and comfortable in shorts and a worn Hulk tee.

“Should I be worried?” Tony asked with a smirk, tugging on the shirt.

“I do adore Bruce’s hair.” Pepper teased, shrieking with laughter when Tony launched himself at her, fingers digging into her sides.

“I can come back…” Darcy said loudly to be heard over Pepper’s shrieking and Tony’s cackling.

“No! No…Tony stop…Darcy…gotta talk to Darcy…” Pepper gasped smacking at Tony’s shoulders and chest. Tony relented and released his hold on her, sitting back on the couch with a smirk. Pepper lay limp on the floor for a long moment while Tony motioned Darcy over.

“Cop a squat kid and grab some food.” Tony invited, grabbing a plate and loading it up with the various types of sushi and sashimi.

“Soooo…are we just not gonna talk about the Pepper in the room?” Darcy asked as she sat on the floor across from Tony and also started choosing food.

“I’m good, I’m good.” Pepper assured her with a chuckle as she sat up and moved to sit by Tony, who slid onto the floor to join the two women. “I’m sure your curious why I invited you up here like this.” Pepper said smiling.

“Yup, you gonna clue me in or be a tease?” Darcy asked smirking.

“Well now I want to be a tease.” Pepper replied smirking back.

“This is what people are missing about you when they think you and Tony don’t make sense.” Darcy declared pointing chopsticks at her. Pepper laughed, grinning as she popped a spicy tuna roll in her mouth.

 “I don’t know if you’ve heard about the charity event I’m slated to take part in next Saturday.” Pepper began.

“The Big Business for Big Change thing right?” Darcy asked reaching for the shrimp tempura rolls.

“Yes, the board decided we needed to put human faces on the companies that are involved in the various initiatives the BBBC supports. It was suggested that rather than a regular thousand dollar a plate fundraiser, or black tie gala, that we recruit high ranking executives and board members from each participating company to perform. Sort of like a high stakes talent show. I thought it was a charming idea, and fully supported it. We decided to do a salute to Broadway, each performance would be a sketch, monologue or musical number from a Broadway show. I was thinking of trying to talk Tony into doing something from Sweeny Todd when the CEO of Vangsness-Moore Technology, Caroline Hamilton, convinced me to team up with her.” Pepper explained.

“Caroline is Pepper’s Justin Hammer, except she’s actually competent at her job. She baited Pep into agreeing in public and once she had…” Tony said meaningfully.

“There was no way you were backing out.” Darcy finished for him.

“Exactly, I knew it was a bad idea. That she’d find a way to screw me over , but Caroline had out maneuvered me and it’s rare enough someone can do that I wasn’t going to back down too. After an exhaustive process we finally agreed to sing a duet from Wicked, Defying Gravity. I was instantly suspicious when she wanted to be Elphaba instead of Glinda, but I went with it. Sure enough today she screwed me over. Officially it was a scheduling snafu, her niece’s wedding being the same day in Italy. But it still leaves me without an Elphaba. Jarvis suggested you might be willing to take her place.” Pepper told her.

“Of course, I mean I’m a little rusty but I can definitely be ready to sing by Saturday. I’ve never worked with a harness before though, are you doing the flying thing?” Darcy wanted to know.

“Flying thing?” Tony asked looking back and forth between them.

“No, Caroline said she’s afraid of heights so we didn’t make arrangements for that.” Pepper answered ignoring Tony.

“What flying thing?” Tony asked louder.

“Elphaba, the character that becomes the Wicked Witch of the West, gets her flying broom in that scene and levitates into the air in the show. We’re not doing that though.” Pepper explained rolling her eyes.

“Why not? I can rig something up, maybe even a broom that will actually hover. We strap Darcy in a safety harness, all she has to do is sit on it like a swing, if Bruce helps we could have a prototype ready tomorrow.” Tony declared climbing to his feet. Pepper and Darcy watched in mute helplessness as Tony started giving Jarvis orders while he headed for his shop.

“Guess it’s a good thing I’m not afraid of heights.” Darcy commented once the room was quiet again.

“At least Bruce will be able to rein him in enough to keep him from sending you into a wall like he did to himself when he was testing the repulsors on the first real suit.” Pepper told her with a sigh.

“Tell me there’s footage of that.” Darcy begged with a laugh.

“Jarvis, cue up the videos of the Mark II testing please.” Pepper said grinning at Darcy.

The next week and a half saw Darcy and Pepper taking every spare moment to rehearse the scene, singing long into the night until they both could have done the entire routine while unconscious. Tony spent long hours locked in his workshop with Bruce, constructing and then testing the hover broom; so the first time he heard Darcy sing was during a full dress rehearsal.

An hour later the head of PR was calling Pepper’s assistant about how “Mr. Stark’s tweet is blowing up the internet.” When Pepper had Jarvis pull up twitter (she was covered in glitter, fuck if she was touching her phone-damn costume) she had to grin at the message.

**Elphaba just blew the roof off Stark Tower, look out Oz. #BigBusinessforBigChange #thisisgoingtobeepic #bitchplease**

“This is Sarah McGregor for Hollywood Buzz, tonight we’re live from the red carpet of the charity event of the year. Big Business for Big Change is putting on a one night Broadway review, where some of the most influential business men and women from around the world will be performing for charity. With us now is Tony Stark, who surprisingly is accompanied by all of his fellow Avengers. Mr. Stark, this past week you sent twitter into a flurry of excitement when you tweeted about the event tonight. This was of course on the heels of speculation that Stark Industries CEO Pepper Potts was going to have to withdraw from tonight’s performance due to a scheduling conflict. Can you tell us what happened?” the reporter asked.

“Of course, I mean it’s no secret that Caroline backed out on Pepper. What happened after is Pepper did what she always does, she rallied the troops and got shit done.” Tony answered smirking into the camera.

“Can you tell us who replaced CEO of Vangsness-Moore Technology, Caroline Hamilton?” Sarah wanted to know.

“Our good friend and chief nerd herder of Stark Idustries R&D, Darcy Lewis, stepped up to the plate and into the green makeup.” Tony replied grinning.

“Chief nerd herder?” she asked amused.

“Yeah, it’s her actual job title, I had business cards made and everything.” Tony said with a laugh.

“Thank you Mr. Stark, it’s been a pleasure.” Sarah said clearly trying not to laugh.

“No problem, and hang out to your seat tonight, Darcy’s gonna blow the roof off this place.,” Tony assured her smugly. Leaving the reporter behind Tony rejoined the others and made his way into the theater. They were quickly shown to their seats and settled in with minimal fuss, if quite a bit of staring from the other people in the audience. They sat through the show, some of it enjoyable and some of it gut wrenchingly awful, but still it was for charity. Tony had upped his personal donation just to ensure that Pepper and Darcy went on last, though there were points throughout the night he wished he hadn’t.

At last Pepper and Darcy were on stage. It was obvious both women were talented singers, Darcy sounding only a little better than Pepper as they harmonized effortlessly. Then Darcy was swinging the broom under her knees and Tony was leaning forward.

“Here we go,” he muttered to the others.

“ _So if you care to find me, look to the western sky_!” Darcy belted out, her voice suddenly more nuanced and rich. “ _As someone told me lately everyone deserves a chance to **fly**_!” and on the word fly the broom began to glow green, the audience gasping as one when Darcy levitated into the air roughly eight feet above the stage floor.

“ _And if I’m flying solo, at least I’m flying free. To those who’d ground me, take a message back from me_!” Darcy sung, her momentum and volume growing.

“ _Tell them how I am defying gravity, I’m flying high defying gravity and soon I’ll match them in renown and nobody in all of OZ, no wizard that there is or was will ever bring me **down**!”_

Darcy’s voice rang through the theater, holding the note as Pepper and extras off stage sang back at her.

“ ** _Bring me DOOOWWWNN_**!” Darcy sang, her voice seeming to fill the space, the power of it washing over the enraptured audience.

“ ** _Ahhhhhhh_**!” she finished, holding the last note even longer than before as the music came to its crescendo before the lights, singing and orchestra stopped, bring a ringing silence to the room before it broke out into heartfelt applause.

In Venice Italy, Caroline Hamilton threw a crystal champagne glass across the room where it shattered against the wall. The live stream she’d paid one of the stage hands to set up so she could witness Pepper fall flat on her face, was still broadcasting as the audience went wild with applause. Damn that woman for always landing on her feet, damn Stark Industries, and damn Darcy Lewis. Caroline shrieked in outrage as the two women appeared to take their bows and the clapping only got louder. Unable to take anymore she viciously yanked the cord from the computer and stormed out of the room. She was never going to hear the end of this. Ever.

 

 

 

 


End file.
